During historic high for hunger, local food bank wins big

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COLUMBIA - With help from people all over the country, The Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri won a $60,000 grant.

The grant comes at a critical time, as food insecurity remains at a historic high this fall, with one in seven Americans in need of food assistance, including 12 million children.

An online contest called the Walmart's "Fight Hunger. Spark Change." campaign included close to 250 food banks. The campaign gave a $60,000 grant to each of the top 50 food banks with the most online votes.

From Sept. 15 - Oct. 5, supporters generated 4,555 votes for The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri. Executive Director Patty Kirkpatrick said the support from the local community was incredible, but the interesting thing was the support from other areas as well.

"Actually, we have votes not just from Boone County but from all over our service area because we serve 32 counties," Kirkpatrick said. "I had people emailing me saying we were getting votes from overseas, we were getting votes from people as far away as New York and New Jersey and California."

Kirkpatrick said the money will be split between a pantry in Salsberry, a pantry in Rolla, Buddy packs, and obtaining more food for the food bank to distribute to local pantries.